The Life of an Eraser
by The True Creature of the Night
Summary: Max made them look like the bad guys. She made it look like they had it easy and the flock had it hard. She didn't have a clue what the erasers went through on a daily basis. She didn't realized that they're lives are worse than she could imagine.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Oh. Look. I'm back on this site. I haven't gotten on here in like . . . a couple years. wow! Well, the story behind this story is pretty much what the erasers think of what's going on. I tried posting this story before but when I got on to check out how it was doing I realized how bad my writing was back then. I deleted the story and I'm curently rewriting it. So without any furter waite here is chapter one of The life of an Eraser.**

**Disclamer: I dont own Maximum Ride.**

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><p>I woke up in a bed that was more like a large dog crate. It was only tall enough to sit up in and not even long enough to stretch out all the way when I slept. It had a thin blanket in it "incase we got cold" but it wouldn't hold in a single degree of heat. Anyway they didn't care if we were cold. They didn't care if we died. If we died they would just make another eraser. We were that disposable.<p>

I looked around at the other crates in the room. Other erasers were calmly sleeping in their almost-too-small crates. It looked like I was the first one up today. Not that it actually meant anything. All I could do was sit around wishing my life was different. I rolled my shoulders and stretched my back listening to each vertebra pop. My body was stiff from sleeping in such a small place and I didn't even have enough room to properly stretch out my stiff body.

One of the scientists – white coats, as we knew them – walked in and turned on the lights. He walked by and unlocked each crate. They didn't take any chances of us escaping here. They locked the doors, the cages, and always had someone watching to make sure we didn't try to leave.

I slowly made my way to the cafeteria but this time I took a less direct root. I didn't feel like fighting with the other erasers this morning. Being one of the few female erasers I had a harder time than the rest. I was smaller and didn't have as many mussels as the guys. On the other hand I was quicker and agiler than the males but that wouldn't do me any good trying to get a good place in line for breakfast.

On my way by I noticed some of the crates were empty. Normally I wouldn't notice or care but they experiments that were normally in those crates were different. They had wings. Like the birds outside. The birds that we would practice catching. I didn't like smacking the poor, helpless birds out of the wonderful blue sky. They disserved to be there. That's what they were made for. To fly. To fly far away for this awful place. That's what wings were for. To get away. The experiments had wings but they were trapped never able to truly use their wings to get away.

I didn't stay long. If I stayed anywhere too long people would start to wonder. I didn't like being the center of attention so I kept on walking. I thought that maybe the wonderful experiments had been sent to the Institute. I hoped they got away while they were trying to transport them. I hoped that they got away and showed the school that they couldn't hold the beautiful wings in cages forever.

While I was eating I was trying to remember what we did yesterday. I was part of the "erasers in training" where we learned how to fight and take care of unruly experiments. I think they said something like that on the first day. They taught this group like we wanted to join. The way they worded things made it seem like we had it good. Maybe we did have it good compared to some of the experiments. The ones that wouldn't even live a whole day because there were some animal that just should not be combined.

As I was eating I hears some of the white coats talking.

"Where have the bird kids gone?" a somewhat younger white coat asked.

"We sent one to the Institute," the other stated.

"_All_ of them are gone," the first man stated matter-of-factly.

The older one raised his eyebrows and went to check. I glimmer of hope sputtered to life inside me. _They made it out, _I cheered inside. _They really made it out._

I looked up when I heard someone walk over and sit down next to me. it was Ari, my best friend. He'd been turned into an eraser when his father pretty much forgot about him. He looked different than all the other erasers. Even when he wasn't in wolf-form he still hade a wolf-like appearance whereas the rest of us looked completely human.

"Good morning, Sarah," he greeted. He called me by my name. The name I'd given myself. Most erasers didn't have names just numbers but Ari had a name and when I met him I was sad that I didn't so together we came up with the perfect name: Sarah.

"Morning, Ari," I answered back smiling.

"Have you seen my dad?"

I shook my head. Ari's dad was Jeb. He was some high ranked white coat that only cared about the bird-kids. The bird kids . . . . That's when it clicked.

"Ari," said trying to hide the smile on my face. "Your dad busted the bird-kids out last night. He's probably not back yet."

Ari smiled trying not to show the disappointment welling up in him.

I didn't understand that Ari was upset so I just kept trying to make conversation.

"Isn't that great, Ari. They're free. They can finally use their wings for flying away from here like you always said."

Ari wasn't listening anymore.

"He left without me," Ari mumbled to himself I could see him getting angier by the second. I leaned over and gave him a friendly hug hoping he wouldn't do something he would later regret.

Jeb's POV

I walked down the unmonitored halls. Everyone had already gone to bed. Only the erasers were being monitored now. I had made sure everything was right before I even left the room. The cameras were off, the doors were unlocked, everything was going to work just like I'd planed.

I knelt down next to the small cages, unlocking each as quietly as I could. As soon as each was awake I motion them to be quiet. Silently they crawled out of their cages. I pointed to the door where we were headed. The door lead strait to the parking lot where the van was ready to take the flock far away. I stayed behind holding Iggy's hand leading him out of the building.

We were outside. The fresh night air blew gently around us. I opened the van door letting everyone in. I closed the side door and got in the drivers seat about to turn on the van. That was when Max spoke up.

"Where are we going?"

I turned around to look at the car full of young kids. The youngest were sitting in the first row. I could tell four-year-old Angel was doing all she could to keep her big blue eyes open. The older one's where in the second row. The were the older one's but they were still only 12.

"Far away, Max. Where the erasers cant find you." And I hoped, with all my heart, that I was telling the truth.

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><p><strong>AN: please review and tell me what you think. What you liked and what you didn't. I just wanna hear from you.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: chapter two's out! And it was in less than a week! Just to let ya know I try to update once a week but be well aware that life happens and updateing every week may not always be possible. Special thanks to my one reviewer. I also thank the other readers but I would like ya a whole lot more if you reviewed.**

** I haven't read The Angel Experiment recently and I cant remember the exact dates and ages that everything happened. Please tell me if I got/ever get the dates wrong but please tell me in a nice, polite, way. So here is chapter two!**

**Disclamer: I dont own Maximum Ride or The Hunger Games.**

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><p>Two years later<p>

I knew I was right about what happened to the bird kids. Of course the white coats wouldn't say a word about it. I couldn't tell weather they didn't want rumors getting out or if they were too embarrassed that someone could sneak out some of the most important experiments so easily. But no matter how hard the white coats tried it was only a matter of time before word got out. When it did everyone was in a tizzy. The bird kids were one of the few successful experiments the school had made and it was quite upsetting that they had lost them so easily. They decided telling the truth would make the school look bad so if you asked them what happened they'd tell you that Jeb stoll the bird kids so that he could make money off them.

Ari and I knew better. We knew that Jeb cared about them more than anything in his life, even his own son. We knew that Jeb had broken them out from this place because he couldn't let the school have such wonderful creatures. The only thing we didn't know was why he didn't take us with him.

Through the past two years not much has happened. We were no longer "erasers-in-training" but that didn't mean too much. All it meant was we didn't have lessons on proper fighting everyday. I was thankful for that part. I was an OK fighter but when I was fighting a male eraser the same age but five times bigger than me I knew I didn't have a chance.

Ari on the other hand seemed to be suffering from lack of fighting. Ari seemed to have some anger management problems sometimes. The constant fighting everyday when we were in training seemed to help but now that we were out he was getting angrier, quicker and getting in spontaneous fights more often. I had to take up for Ari. Every time he got into a fight it was because someone said something that ticked him off and it was almost always intended to make him mad. The other erasers made fun of Ari because he looked different and was the "white coats pet" because he was Jeb's son. But no matter what the cause was he still got in trouble a lot more than he should of. They seemed to be a little stricter on him because of what his father did. They didn't seem to get the fact that it wasn't fair to blame him for his fathers crimes but there was no arguing with the white coats. Anyways, though he got in a lot of trouble the punishments were never too harsh. Jeb was very high ranked when he was here so if he did come back and found out that they severely punished his son there was going to be a major problem even if they do fire him the second he walked in the door.

Of course I wasn't the little angel around here either. I spent most of my time trying, unsuccessfully, to keep Ari out of trouble and when I wasn't around him I spent most of my time standing up for him. Like I already said, the other erasers constantly made fun of him and I wouldn't take that. Ari was the only reason I ever got into fights. Weather I was fighting with him – though that rarely happened – or if I was fighting for him. Fighting amongst erasers was prohibited so I often got in trouble but Ari was always there to help. He got me in trouble but was always there to get me out. Anyways he was always fun to hang out with. Things never got boring when he was around.

There wasn't much going on in the school. They would try to make a new creature and turn up with one that can't digest food or can't breath oxygen and would die almost immediately. The only exciting thing that ever happened was when you got an experiment at that was smart enough to try to get away. The erasers were in charge of capturing the run away creature and that was fun. It was the only time that I was truthfully glade I'd been trained. Even though the chases normally only lasted a few minutes they were talked about for a long time.

Erasers had other jobs to do around the school but Ari and I were too lazy to do them. If the white coats knew we were skipping out we'd be dead meat but there wasn't a role call so if you didn't show up no one would notice. I never found out if the white coats truly didn't know we were gone or if they thought it would be easier if we didn't show up.

Today was no different than any other. After getting up and slowly making my way through the line to get breakfast I sat down at our usual table. I somehow always made it to the table before Ari. I didn't try to get here fast and I certainly never got a good place in line but Ari was always slower than me. I sat down and poked the stuff they called food with my fork. There wasn't anything appetizing about it. It was just tasteless, oatmeal colored, mush that got us by.

Ari walked over and greeted me.

"Good morning, Ari," I said smiling.

"What's up, Sarah?" he asked.

"Nothing," replied before swallowing as much of the disgusting mush as I could.

"Then why is it a _good_ morning?"

I sighed. "Ari, I don't know. It's just what people say."

"Well, people are stupid. No morning's good until I get out of here," he mumbled before shoving the food down his throat.

As soon as we were both finished we snuck out of the building and up to the hill that we always went to. The school was in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by nothing but wide-open land. Over on the horizon you could see the start of a forest but I'd only been that far while training and on one of the rare chases.

Most of the land was fairly flat. There were a few small hills but nothing of any extreme height. Even if the hills weren't that big I loved jumping and running down them. I imagined I had wings and if I ran fast enough I would sore into the sky and go far away. I never told that to Ari though. When we were younger we both wished that we had wings but ever since his dad busted the winged kids out Ari pretended to forget about them. I could tell he was mad that his dad chose the six bird kids over him but who wouldn't be angry about that. I just wished that Ari would forget about it. I know it wasn't a little thing but ever since then Ari wouldn't even think about the bird kids. It truly hurt me to see that he hated the six kids so much now. He loved them all so much before, but now . . . it just wasn't the same.

I sat down at the base of the tree that grew on top of the hill. It was so peaceful up here. It was the only time there was any tranquility in my chaotic life. Ari sat down next to me and looked across the waves of green grass blowing in the wind.

We could run. Run as fast as we could and try to get away. We had thought about it before but never all that seriously. I didn't know why we hadn't. I'm sure they knew we came up here everyday so if we did run they would probably send people after us. But we're erasers, we could out run them but Ari always waved the thought of running off, away. Though he never said it I knew why he didn't leave. He was waiting for someone to return. He was waiting for his dad.

So, what do we do up here on this hill under the big oak tree, you ask? Ari teaches me. That's what we do. Erases don't learn the stuff that normal humans learned and Ari said that if we ran away one day, we would have to know how to read and write. Ari had been a human child for a little while and learned how to read and write so he was passing that knowledge on to me.

He opened the book. He'd found it in one the white coats rooms. I didn't know exactly what the cover said. I could tell it was three words and the first word was "The".

Ari saw me trying to decipher the cover so he closed the book and looked down at it.

"What's that word?" he asked pointing to the first word on the cover.

"The. That's an easy one," I said confidently.

Ari smiled and nodded before pointing to the next one. I stared at the word for a while trying to remember what each letter sounded like.

"Say it out loud," Ari instructed.

"Hu-un-gu-eh-er," I said. "Hun-gu-eh-er. Hun-gu-er." I paused thinking for a second. "Hunger!" I shouted happily.

"Good job," Ari congratulated me. "Now how about this last word?"

I studied the word before I spoke. "Gu-ah-m-eh-s. Guah-m-es." I frowned. "Guahmus?"

"The A makes and 'ay' sound," he hinted.

I tried again. "Gu-ay-m-es. Guay-mes. Games!" I said proudly. "And I only needed one, little hint."

The truth was I stunk at reading. Ari never said that but he didn't have to. I'd been trying to learn to read for about six mouths but I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. I knew what letter sounded like but placing the letters that were on the paper with words I already knew wasn't easy. It was a miracle that Ari was patient enough to teach me because if I were him I would have given up a long time ago.

Ari opened the book to the first page. He handed the book to me and told me to try to read the first line. I scanned over the first sentence before saying anything. Right as I opened my mouth to try to pronounce the first word something caught my attention.

I looked over at Ari. He'd heard it too. We looked at each other for a moment before getting up and walking to the other side of the hill.

The other side of the hill looked down at the parking lot for the school. There weren't many cars parked there. The truth was, the parking lot was just too big for the amount of people at the school that had cars. Anyways, it was pretty much useless to have a car around here. Once you got here you didn't leave. Food was brought in and most people stayed here over night. That meant that there were only a small number of cars that ever populated the overly large parking lot.

But the thing that caught our attention was the sound of a running engine. It was a sound that we hardly ever heard. Like I said, once you got here you didn't really leave so the only time we ever here running engines was when we got a food delivery. But the food delivery trucks were on a schedule and today wasn't the day they normally came.

As Ari and I looked across the parking lot we saw where the noise was coming from. A van was pulling into the large asphalt square. At first I thought it was a new recruit that the school hired but the van looked too familiar. I started to just pass it off as two people having the same car but Ari was way ahead of me.

I started to walk back to the large oak tree. I turned around to see if Ari was following me back. When I looked back he was still watching the van with a far away look in his eyes. I started to ask what he was thinking but when the driver stepped out of the car I realized why Ari was watching so closely: the driver was Jeb.

Ari ran down the hill as fast has his strong legs would carry him. I ran down the hill too, but a little slower. I couldn't believe Jeb was really back. It was like a crazy dream that you never thought could be real, come true.

I made it to the bottom of the hill. Ari ran up to Jeb giving him the biggest hug ever. I expected Jeb to hug Ari back. To tell him how much he missed him over the years. To tell him that he was going to break Ari out next. That's not what happened at all.

Jeb looked horrible. He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. His hair was a wreck and he didn't smell too great either.

Jeb looked down at Ari and brushed him away mumbling something about "getting to him later".

I looked over at the broken hearted Ari. I saw small tears starting to well up in the corners of his eyes. It was the only time I'd ever seen him cry. But who in his situation wouldn't. He'd been turned into a mutant freak and his father no longer cared about him. His father only cared about the bird kids. And I was the only person that cared about Ari.

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><p><strong>AN: favorite or alert if you havent already just reveiw no matter what.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: well I'm sad that there are no new reviews but I am so happy to say that I have at least one reader for six different countries. Wow. I also wanted to let you know that I wont be able to post next week because I'm going on a ski trip to Colorodo and will be too busy sking to write. I know that I'm getting a bit of a slow start but trust me it's about to seriously pick up. And I know things may seem a littel romancey between Ari and Sarah but they're just friends . . . at the moment. So read and enjoy.**

**Discalmer: I dont own Maximum Ride. only Sarah and I dont own the idea for erasers so I- hardly even own her.**

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><p>I had two choices. I could stay here and try to help Ari or I could follow Jeb is and find out what was going on. I wanted so desperately to choose the latter. I wanted to catch up with Jeb and make him tell me everything that happened. I wanted him to tell me that the six bird kids were OK. I didn't care if Ari wanted nothing more in the world to see them dead but all I wanted was to know that they were safe.<p>

I could have run in and caught up with Jeb. I could have made him tell me everything but I know deep inside that I would've made the wrong decision. Jeb was a traitor. He left us here to be tortured and who knows what while he brought the bird kids to a sanctuary. Ari would never forgive me if I let my curiosity get a hold on my mind at the moment. I could talk to Jeb later but I could comfort Ari now. Or so I thought.

I looked over at Ari. His head down, still crying and cursing under his breath.

"It's OK, Ari," I reassured him. I walked toward him.

"Leave me alone, Sarah," he growled.

I smiled. "You know I cant do that." I walked up started to give him a friendly hug.

"I mean it, Sarah," he growled. I know he didn't. He wanted to fight it off. He didn't want to give in to just letting his feelings go. He was exactly what the white coats wanted. He wouldn't give up his anger. He held onto it until it came bursting forth and he would kill and not even realize what he'd done. I couldn't let that happen.

"I mean what I say too," I countered with a strong, determined voice. I wrapped my arms around Ari's waist and rested my chin on his shoulder.

I expected him to relax like he always did. I expected him to give in and forget how angry he was at his dad. Or maybe I just hope that. Whatever the case was it didn't happen.

I gasp from surprise and pain in my cheek. Ari's half morphed claw left four distinct cuts on my cheek. Blood slowly stared oozing out of them as I stared dumbfounded at Ari.

"I told you to leave me alone!" Ari yelled.

"But, but," I stuttered. "Ari!"

He extended his claws and glared down at me. He wouldn't hurt me. I was his best friend – his only friend – he wouldn't hurt me, right?

"Ari, don't be silly," I managed to get out. "You . . . you like me. You wouldn't hurt me."

The unfortunate truth was that he was angrier with his dad than he cared about me. He would rather kill me than let me try to stop him. I knew this but I wasn't going to stand down. I wouldn't let him kill the bird kids, I wouldn't let him kill his dad, and I wont let him kill me right now.

I opened my mouth in hope the wonderful words of wisdom would fly out and make everything all right again but this was the real world and things like that don't happen. I just stood there like an idiot with my mouth open.

When Ari realized I didn't have anything to say he pushed my out his way. I fought back but he was stronger and just pushed me harder living small claw marks on my arm. He walked on toward the door but I ran in front of him blocking his way. Ari picked my up and I prepared to be smashed into a wall or getting my head ripped off or some other way Ari could find to kill me but that never happened.

It was the only time in my life that I was happy to see the white coats. They rushed out and before I knew it Ari was sedated and being carried back in. It wasn't the first time one of the erasers had to be put unconscious and it also wasn't the first time Ari had to be put unconscious but this time was different. It was the first time the Ari had ever truly attacked me. We'd gotten in fights before and attacked each other before but we'd never truly intended on hurting or even killing each other. But the look in his eye when he grabbed me was cruel and uncaring. He was seriously prepared to kill me.

The white coats got me into the building and gave me a lector on how no one's allowed outside the building while tending to the cuts on my cheek. I couldn't care less about what the white coats were saying and the cuts only hurt worse when they put the antiseptic on them. After the lector was over they sent me off to do some actual work around the school.

I was on guard duty for some of the experiments. There wasn't much to do except stand there and look intimidating. I spent most of the time running my fingers across the four cut on my cheek. They had already scabbed up and looked pretty bad. I knew they would leave a scar and that made me smile. It was almost a right of passage for erasers to have a large visible scar. Though I didn't like the story behind it at all it would make me look a lot tougher. Anyways, I could spend my time making up an epic story of how I got my scar.

It was a long time before I spotted Ari. I was sitting alone at our table eating dinner when I saw him. He looked over at the table where I was sitting then quickly looked for another empty table. When we met eyes I mentioned for him to come here. He looked at the ground then grudgingly came. Before he even set his plate on the table he started apologizing.

"Sarah, I'm really sorry. I –," Ari started but I cut him off.

"Ari, quite it. I know you're sorry. Just . . . just forget it," I said. I didn't want him wallowing in the past. I didn't want to here him apologize. I just wanted to pretend it didn't happen.

"I can't forget it when it was my claws that destroyed your face."

"I didn't think it looked _that_ bad," I joked. "Hey, it will leave a nice scar and you and me can come up with some cool story about it."

"You're not mad?" Ari asked hopefully.

"Nah. It was kinda my fault too. I shouldn't have been all hugs-will-cure-everything. I'm an eraser. I don't even know why I think that way."

" 'Cause you're a girl," Ari said.

I put my hands on my hips. "Oh? And what's that supposed to mean?"

Ari smiled and opened him mouth to say something but he was interrupted by the last person we needed to see at the moment.

"Hello, Ari. Hello, Sarah," he greeted the two of us. I knew Jeb fairly well. I had always been close with Ari and, until recently, Ari had been close with Jeb.

Jeb looked a little bit better than the last time either of us saw him. He looked more upbeat and had taken a well-needed shower. But no matter what there was still something that was missing or something there that hadn't been there before.

The smile that was on Ari's lips quickly faded away. "What?" he asked his dad coldly.

"We are getting ready to set up a mission to get escaped experiments back," Jeb explained.

"So what's that have to do with me?" Ari asked still not looking up at his father.

"We want you to lead it."

Ari stared at his food, brow furrowed. After thinking for a minuet he said, "You want me to lead it. Everyone else here hates me. You're the only one that trusts me. And you're stupid to do so. Look, she trusted me and look what happened to her." He motioned to me.

"Trust," I corrected Ari. "Present tense. Not past." I then turned to Jeb. "Ari would love to take it. as long as I'm in the mission," I said smiling.

"Sarah!" Ari yelled. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm not. Sometimes it helps."

Jeb smiled. "There's a meeting tomorrow and I expect both of you to be there. Ari, I'll meet with you later to explain more of the details." Jeb finished and left.

Ari glared at me. "What did you just get me into?" Ari growled but not in a very threatening way.

"I don't know," I answered truthfully.

Ari put his face in his hand mumbling something about why he hangs out with me.

I smiled. "You know you love me, Ari."

And even though I couldn't see his face I knew he was rolling his eyes. "Just keep telling yourself that, Sarah."

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><p><strong>AN: Please reveiw or fav or alert. please. I dont want to have to bribe or threten. just do one of the three.**


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